AU720120B2 - Extracting energy from magnetic flux - Google Patents

Description

.c P/00/011 281i91 SRegulation 3.2

AUSTRALIA

Patents Act 1990

ORIGINAL

COMPLETE

SPECIFICATION

STANDARD

PATENT

Invention Title: EXTRACTING ENERGY FROM MAGNETIC FLUX.

The following statement is a full description of this invention, including the best method of performing it known to me:- This invention relates to tapping into the energy contained in the magnetic flux surrounding a magnet, As is well known and documented in many text books magnetic flux surrounding a magnet whether permanent or an electro-magnet has the ability to attract other magnets of dissimilar pole (or iron) as though an invisible elastic band is attached between them, and is very useful in electric motors, generators, solenoids and many more applications used in all sorts of ways. Anyone working with magnets will have noticed that magnetic flux want's to move things quickly and in the case of permanent magnets can not be used up no matter how many times the magnetic flux is allowed to attract something to the magnet, these facts give a clue to another facet of magnetic flux which can be used to augment our power needs.

To give a complete description of this invention and explain the nature of this other facet of magnetic flux I have to start my explanation at the atomic level.

t 6 (2) As is well known everything is made of atoms, and each atom has one or more electrons revolving in orbit around a central nucleus, the electrons orbit at great speed and have been doing so for millions of years, it is ,ZO happening now in this paper, everything we can see would not exist if it wasn't so, some unknown and permanent force keeps the electrons orbiting at near the speed of light for millions of years, we can move them about electrically or chemically, but we cannot stop there movement.

In our dimension it is entirely different everything naturally wants to be at a standstill and whatever we want to move needs some energy to move it.

It works this way, Something needs moving, Energy has to be used to move it, could be muscle power, explosives, o.

steam, .o 30 In every case expenditure of energy is required first before any movement occurs.

If we study where the energy came from it can always be traced back to stored solar enegy, to grow food, make oil or coal, make the wind blow, ••so we can really say, Something needs moving, Stored solar energy supplies the energy to move it, (3) But with two exceptions, Atomic energy and Magnetism, once an atomic power plant is set up and running it provides power which does not have any connection with stored solar enegy, atomic power is bleeding off a small fraction of the energy which keeps all those electrons orbiting at high speed in the atoms, and with atomic power the position is reversed, Energy is moved from the atomic world into ours, and- Something has to move, Magnetism also works the same way, put a permanent magnet on the table and slowly approach it with a loosely held iron nail, and a point will be reached where the nail comes under the influence of magnetic flux and the nail will fly to the magnet, nothing to do with stored solar enegy made S' the nail fly to the magnet, it was a case oft Energy radiating from the magnet, 50 Movement of the nail, .go:*0 0. 0 The similarity between atomic energy and magnetism is no accident, both forms of energy are provided from the atomic level of activity and the proof is that in both cases the energy is already present and active, and arrives first, movement second, and neither have anything to do with stored solar energy, So that in a magnet we have energy in the form of magnetic flux (4) surrounding the magnet supplied by the atomic level of activity which is permanent and inexhaustible, if you let the nail fly to the magnet a billion times the magnet will loose none of its power, yes I know a permanent magnet becomes weaker over time but realign the poles in the magnets material and it will be new again, the force supplying the magnetism is there all along.

The problem with making use of this energy is that as many experimenters have found out, no matter what mechanism is devised there is no way of overcoming the fact that it takes exactly the same amount of stored solar energy to remove the iron nail from the magnet as the magnet provided from the atomic world to pull the nail to its pole in the first place.

'"There is one facet however about magnets and magnetic flux which can be useful to us and that is the speed that magnetic flux wants to move things under its influence, being driven from the atomic level magnetic

SO...

flux is travelling near the speed of light whenever it appears, this has not been realised to a great extent because anyone experimenting with a permanent magnet and iron nail will get the impression that magnetic flux is like an invisible elastic band between the magnet and the nail, this -""idea is reinforced by electro-magnets which move the iron nail or anything else under the electro-magnets influence faster as more electro motive force is applied to the electro-magnet, creating the impression that more electro-motive force applied means a faster speed of attraction, just as a stronger piece of elastic would do.

But in reality the speed of movement of an iron nail being pulled towards a magnet is a function of the strength of the magnetic flux field and the inertia in the mass of the iron nail being moved, increasing the electromotive force applied to the electro-magnet produces a denser magnetic flux which has more power to overcome the inertia in the iron nail, and the iron nail will be accelerated faster, but this doesn't mean that there is a direct connection between electro-motive force applied and the speed that the magnetic flux can produce, the speed of magnetic flux is fixed by the same force that keeps the electrons orbiting in the atoms, at near the qO speed of light, even a weak magnetic field would accelerate an iron nail or anything else under it's influence up to a very high speed, it would just take a greater distance to achieve as there is less power available to overcome inertia in the mass of the iron nail being moved.

The magnetic flux stream emanating from any magnet is like an :i enormously fast flowing canal, if a boat is dropped into a fast flowing canal it will soon be doing the same speed as the water in the canal, *o.

magnetic flux is like an invisible stream flowing at near the speed of light and travelling from anything that comes under its influence directly to the nearest most powerful magnets pole, and anything coming under the loo influence of magnetic flux is swept along on this stream at ever increasing speed not as an elastic band would pull it but like a boat in a very fast flowing canal, and on arriving at the magnets pole it is held there very firmly, just as a boat would be on the canal if it arrived at a fallen tree across the canal blocking its progress.

(6) In other words the speed of movement in the magnetic flux stream has a fixed speed and cannot be slowed by use, it is there now, was always there, and always will be there, and needs no input of stored solar energy from us as it is driven from the atomic level.

The good thing is that we can generate electricity using a generator li0 running at a relatively low speed where mechanical problems are not too great, feed the electricity into an electro-magnet and make some of the energy keeping those electrons orbiting in the atomic world appear outside of the electro-magnet in the form of the magnetic flux stream, the increase in speed between the speed of movement in the generator and the speed of movement that the magnetic flux stream is capable of providing is huge, and only possible because the speed of the magnetic flux stream is provided free from the inexhaustible supply of energy in the atomic world.

All we do with our generator and electro-magnet is make some of the 120 energy imprisoned in the material that the electro-magnet is made of appear outside the electro-magnet and this energy now appearing outside the electro-magnet is still moving at near the speed of light just as it was while imprisoned within the material.

There are two sources of energy at work here: G 0 We use stored solar energy to drive the generator and feed the electromagnet with electricity.

(7) The magnetic flux stream appears outside the electro-magnet driven at very high speed by the same force that keeps the electrons orbiting in the atoms.

130 By making magnetic flux appear we are able to tap into the force driving the atomic world to move things faster than we could do with stored solar energy no matter how we try.

How can we extract some of this energy from the high speed stream of magnetic flux? To answer that I have to digress to talk about conventional forms of power such as an internal combustion engine for instance, if an internal combustion engine can develop 100BHP at 2000RPM, and the efficiency of the engine can be maintained as the speed is increased to 4000RPM, it will now produce 200BHP, in other S"words double the speed and it doubles the BHP, this increase in BHP has S/4 to do with time, at 4000RPM each power stroke takes half as long as it did at 2000RPM, So to increase the power output the time for each power pulse has to be reduced and the efficiency maintained.

Usually to obtain faster power pulses in any sort of mechanical engine such as internal combustion engines, electric motors, steam engines oooo ~involves making the whole of the mechanism run faster, and then problems with the weight of reciprocating masses centrifugal force friction. becomes a limiting factor to the number of power pulses that can be fitted into a given length off time.

(8) However there is a way of obtaining much faster power pulses, without 150 making the whole mechanism run faster, and this involves the use of a spring, and I have to go into some detail to explain how this can be done.

If a spring is compressed, the energy required to compress the spring is stored in the spring, and when released the spring is capable of returning nearly the same amount of energy to do mechanical work, the time it takes to compress the spring in the first place has no effect on the energy that the spring can return whether it takes one minute to compress the spring, or one thousandths of a second, in both cases exactly the same amount of energy is stored in the spring and this energy can be returned to do mechanical work.

160 If the spring is tensioned by electrical means which uses the high speed magnetic flux stream as an intermediary between electro-motive force and mechanical movement such as a short travel linear motor, the spring can be fuilly tensioned very quickly, solenoids can work quickly too if not too large, and there may be other electrical means of tensioning a spring electrically not yet discovered, and the faster the electrical means can tension the spring the less time that the electricity has to be switched on whilst tensioning takes place, yet the spring continues to return the same amount of energy to do mechanical work.

As an example, if by electrical means, with suitable design a spring can be tensioned in 1/20th of a second to store energy in the spring and the (9) spring can return this energy in one second to do mechanical work the electrical means need only be using electrical energy for 1/20th of a second to tension the spring, so that it is only switched on and using electrical energy for 1/20th of the time, if the spring could be tensioned in 1/40th second the electricity would be switched on for only half as long yet in both cases the spring is going to return the same amount of energy to do mechanical work, this brings me to the main point in having a spring, and that is to disconnect the electro-motive force from the load.

In all conventional electric power sources today such as Induction 180 motors, and DC motors, all the time work is being performed, electricity is being used. but this doesn't have to be the case.

As an example, take a wind up clock and instead of a key, put an electric motor where the key would normally be and have this electric motor develop just enough torque to wind up the spring, the amount of torque needed only has to be a very small amount more than would be required to drive the gear train and keep the pendulum swinging, as the torque that the spring can give to the shaft is almost identical to the torque which has to be applied to the shaft to wind up the spring, o* Now apply electricity to the motor and it will wind up the spring in half a ooooi 1 q) minute or so, and the spring will keep the clock going for a week this means the electro-motive force only has to be switched on and using electricity for half a minute each week.

But if there is a direct drive between the motor and the shaft that is driving the gear train in the clock, so that the spring plays no part in the drive and electricity is applied again, this time the electricity has to be maintained continuously or the clock will stop which means if the clock is to be kept going for a week the electricity input has to be maintained for a week as well.

In both cases the electric motor only has to provide the same amount of 200 torque, but with the spring in operation electricity is only turned on for half a minute each week, instead of switched on continuously with no spring.

This is a very good example of saving electricity by placing a spring between electro-motive force and load.

A spring or springs can be arranged to drive anything, no matter how big or small the load, so that the spring can move the load over time without any electrical input, and when the spring needs retensioning the electromotive force only has to retention the spring and overcome inertia in the mass of the spring itself which takes little time, so that instead of the 10 electro-motive force being maintained continuously to move the load, electricity is only used in short bursts as the spring needs retensioning.

there are many mechanical configurations which would allow for rapid tensioning of the spring and using the stored energy in the spring to perform mechanical work at a slower speed.

Having disconnected the load from the electro-motive force by placing a spring between them, the high speed magnetic flux stream can tension the spring very quickly because now the only brake on the speed of spring tensioning is inertia in the mass of the moving part of the spring (11) itself and in the armature of a linear motor, or core of a solenoid, or what ever type of electrical means is used to tension the spring. With the load disconnected from the electro-motive force a mechanism can be designed which will run slow enough so that inertia, centrifugal force, friction, etc.

are not a problem, yet at the same time the actual power pulse (or tensioning of the spring) can be done very quickly indeed, with a break between cycles of tensioning, while the spring returns its stored energy to the mechanism to supply power, There are many types of spring which could be used, and many configurations of mechanism that could be designed to achieve this purpose, but as an example I will describe an air spring and a linear motor to tension the spring.

230 FIG. 1 shows a linear air spring tensioning unit, designed for high speed compressing of the air spring in the air chamber.

•o FIG. 2 shows an engine fitted with a linear air spring tensioning unit.

ooo• The linear air spring tensioning unit in FIG 1 is essentially a DC electric motor only with the wire coils wound onto the armature 90 degrees to what would normally be the case in a DC electric motor, so that the armature moves along the axis of the shaft rather than rotating, the field coils are wound similar to a normal electric motor only with one magnetic pole at the centre and the other magnetic pole on the outside, o the flux travelling through the armature as it passes from the centre to the outside or visa-versa. The field coils could just as easily be permanent magnets.

V UI (12) When electricity is applied to the armature it is pulled strongly by the magnetic flux, which reduces the size of the air chamber (B) compressing the air in the air chamber, as this happens the roller is drawn up with the main shaft so that when the electricity is turned off the roller will be pushed back down by the compressed air in the chamber This assembly can be fitted into an engine as in figure (2) with the roller pushing on a cam which rotates the shaft as the roller reaches the end of its stroke electricity is applied to the armature of the air spring tension unit drawing up the roller enabling the rotating cam to pass under the roller and when the roller is positioned over the start of the cam at the electricity can be turned off and the compressed air in the air chamber in the linear air spring tension unit will push the roller down onto the cam to continue rotation of the shaft The air tank can be set at a suitable initial pressure to give the correct strength of air spring needed for a particular application.

oooo A linear motor with a light weight armature, strong field, and maximum length of wire in the armature, especially designed for maximum speed of operation would be both powerful and fast, and ideal to tension a spring 2C) very quickly.

oa.o.i Such a motor would make good use of the force emanating from the atomic level of activity in the magnetic flux stream to tension the spring ro :very quickly, and the lighter the mass in the moving parts of the linear motor the less inertia, and the less time the electricity has to be switched on each time that the spring needs retensioning.

(13) Such an engine would have a constant torque over a wide revs per minute range, and would use less and less watt hours of electricity as the revs per minute slowed under load, unlike conventional electric motors which use more watts hours of electricity as the load slows them down.

2 70 By making use of the high accelerations that the magnetic flux stream is capable of moving anything under its influence, disconnecting the electromotive force from the load with a spring so that spring tensioning speed is not tied to load speed, and using the stored energy in a spring to provide mechanical power, much less electricity would be used than we use today in providing mechanical power, with a big saving in the use of our precious stored solar energy.

Claims (1)

1. An Electric Motor comprising; an armature mounted on a shaft that moves axially on linear bearings; field coils around the armature so that when electricity is applied to the armature and field coils the armature and shaft assembly will move linearly; a spring suitably mounted at one end of the shaft so that it will be tensioned when the electricity is applied; at the opposite end of the shaft to the spring is fitted a roller that is arranged to push on a cam on the output shaft; the output shaft is running on bearings at 90 degrees to the armature shaft; when the electricity energizing the armature is turned off the stored energy in the spring will push the armature assembly in the reverse direction making the roller push on the cam and so turning the output shaft to do work; a o _a App icapint) (Date) (BLOCK LETTERS) SNote: If there is insufficient space above to type the statement of claim, do not use this sheet, but use separate sheets of paper beginning with the words "The claims defining the invention are as follows:" and ending with the date and the name of the applicant in block letters. 1 t am (Dte (BOC LETE Noe fteei nufcetspc bv otp h ttmnto lid o s hsseebtuesprt heso pae beinn ihtewrs*h*lisdfnn h neto aea olw:adedn ihtedt n h aeo h ap*cn in blcetes